Sunday, August 31, 2008

Little mister Clancey likes to look for trouble were ever he can since he's become mobile. Here he is seeing what trouble he can make in the bathroom during nighly baths.
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As of tomorrow summer is unofficially over. Marsh and I decided to take in the nice summer night by taking a bike ride up to the city park. It's hard to believe that summer is already over but just like every year I'm looking forward to football season and christmas is right around the corner.
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Marshall spotted the old car cart at Hy-Vee today. For those of you how have never pushed on of these around let me tell you imagine pushing an SUV through the store that best describes what it's like handling this cart. It's probably somewhere just short of ten feet long and about as much room for groceries as a little basket. If nothing else the kids enjoy it so that's what counts.
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Marsh and I have been at Adventureland for 7 hours now and he still wants to go more. We might just close this place down. Marsh is having a great time.
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Marsh and I decided to do sam's saloon and magic show for lunch. This will be the first magic show Marshall has ever seen, I'm sure he will enjoy it.
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Marsh and I decided to hit the IHOP before our big day at Adventureland. I do have to say ever since the smoking ban all places to get breakfast are a lot nicer to eat in.
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Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Tonight while mommy was at the Lincoln Highway Festival meeting I fired up the tunes for me and the boys to dance. Clancey is turning into quite the little dancer ;).
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Monday, August 18, 2008

While Marshall were out in our bike ride we happened upon a small fire over on 2nd Ave. Didn't look like to big of fire and our fire department looked to have it contained but I'm sure it ruined someones night.
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Saturday, August 16, 2008

Clancey just loves to play with Marshall. Marshall is good with him too. Clancey stands next to him at the train table and destroys things and Marshall puts it back together.
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For those of you who don't know Marshall hates haircuts. Normally they turn into a huge screaming banchee fit. So we thought we would try and take him to professionals for the first time today and its been amazing. No crying, no anything, he just sat there like a big boy and got his hair cut. Unbelievable :)
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This morning at grandma Marsha's Clancey climbed to the top of the stairs all by himself. For those of you who have never seen these stair let me tell you they are some of the steepest stairs I've ever seen. In fact you need climbing gear to walk up them so needless to say Clancey climbing up them as his first set is quite the feat.
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Friday, August 15, 2008

Tonight after we got back to grandma Marsha's and had started eating supper Jen looked in Clancey's mouth like she does every night. Tonight what to our wondering eyes should appear is a small little tooth. It's pretty neat that Clancey got his first tooth on the day of his first fair. Now I do have to mention that, while Jen was elated about the tooth, I suspect the first time she gets bit while breast feeding she won't be so excited ;).
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Well we are done with the fair for another year. It's always about this time that I tell Jen that I can't wait for the fair again next year. I always think of the end of fair being the unofficial end to the summer. It was fun that Clancey could go to his first fair. It will be even better next year when he can walk. Probably have to chase 2 boys around the fair as they run from thing to thing. It will be great.
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Every year it's manditory that I take a picture of my brick at the state fair. If you want to see my brick it's at the north entrance to the ag building, the one near the pork producers booth.
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The one of the best parts about going to the fair is getting a huge turkey leg lunch. Walking around the fair with a big hunk of turkey leg makes you look like a caveman.
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We just got out of the model train exhibit. We were in there for nearly 30 minutes and Marshall did want to leave. Marshall is now telling us that he wants a train set that is that big. So idea for santa an electric train set for Marshall ;).
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There's a bug exhibit right inside the door of the 4H building this year. They let the kids touch and play with bugs if they want. Marshall told those bugs were big and scary and he asked to leave. I don't blame him they were kind of scary ;).
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Were on the bus to the state fair :). Ever since they started the park and ride Jen and I have parked at S.E. Polk Highschool and riden the bus to the fair. I'll tell you what, this is the way to get to fair. No traffic, no lines, no hassle. Anyways check back though out the day for updates from the fair.
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Monday, August 11, 2008

For those of you who don't know, I'm on the city council in Clarence, Iowa. Clarence is a small town of about 1000 people and shrinking so not a whole lot happens in this town. Normally at our council meetings we sit around listening to various people status their committees say a few ayes and move right along. Tonight on the other hand our chief of police reported that he tazed a guy!

I guess there was a report of a car driving along highway 38 north of Stanwood holding a handgun out the window and shooting. Apparently this guy doesn't realize this isn't the old west so that kind of activity is frowned upon. Anyways, our police chief gets dispatched along with some county police to handle the situation. They get the car stopped and have everyone get out at gun point. Once there on the ground they start cuffing the people. Well sometime in the process of getting everyone cuffed one guy decides its a good idea to stand up and start walking towards our chief. After a warning the guy still keeps approaching our chief so he gets the old tazer out and zaps him. I can't help but laugh when I here this because all I can think about is "Don't taze me dude!" guy. Needless to say the guy quickly settled down and was easy to cuff after that.

Sunday, August 10, 2008

As of today Ironman Wisconsin is only 4 weeks away. Many of you have expressed interest in coming to see the Ironman so I thought I would update my blog with some information. First I thought I would make this disclaimer, Ironman is really not a spectator sport. It will like take me somewhere between 15-17 hours to finish the race and out of that time anyone who comes to watch will likely only catch a glimpse of me just a handful of times during the day. Ok with that disclaimer made on with the information.

The race will starts at 7:00 am with an in water mass start. This means all the participants, 2500 people, will be treading water and at 7:00 am everyone will start to swim. It will be impossible to pick anyone out in the swim so it's probably not that vital that you get there right 7:00 am if you are coming to watch, although it may be interesting to see a mass of 2500 people all swimming together. I believe I should be able to do the 2.4 miles swim in 1:30-1:45. This means I should be out of the water between 8:30-8:45am. This will probably be the first chance for you too actually see me in the race.

The better part of the Ironman is spent on the bike. The course at Wisconsin follows a route that goes 16 miles out to a 40 miles loop. After 2 loops the bike follows the 16 miles route back into Madison. The bike should take me 7:30-8:00 hours to complete putting me in transition to run at 4:00-4:30 pm. During the bike there is going to be a shuttle bus that will haul spectators out to the 40 mile loop.

Finally the run portion takes place as 2 13.3 miles loops around downtown Madison. I expect the run to take me right at 6 hours. This puts me at the finish line at 10pm.

While I've trained hard this is a long hard race that I may not finish. For those of you who do come if you see me be sure to cheer me on and encourage me towards the finish line.

Summary:7:00 am: Start Race8:30-8:45 am: Out of Water, transition to bike4:00-4:30 pm: Done with bike, transition to run10:00-10:30 pm: Cross the finish line

Monday, August 04, 2008

Clancey has started moving to table food. Ok, ok so he didn't actually start eating table food today but it did make for a good headline. Clancey has actually been eating table food for about a month now but this is the first time he's eaten carrots. Not only that but this is the first time he's eaten anything out of the garden, so see it was a first, just didn't have the right headline ;)
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Friday, August 01, 2008

Here's a picture of some bathtime fun I took tonight. I think Clancey idolizes Marshall, so anytime Marshall plays with him Clancey gets really excited. Seeing the way Clancey looks at Marshall in this picture captures that well.

About Me

Levi is a software engineer currently working at Rockwell Collins in Cedar Rapids. Levi lives in Clarence, Iowa where he has lived since 2004 and he is serving his third four year term a city councilman.

When Levi isn't working he spends time raising his two awesome boys, Marshall and Clancey. Levi is also in training for his 9th Ironman Triathlons which will be held in Madison, Wisconsin on September 13th of 2015. .